Trump attacks AT&T CEO after company announces retirement

President Donald Trump took a public swipe at AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson on Friday, shortly after the company disclosed the executive's retirement plans.

"Great News! Randall Stephenson, the CEO of heavily indebted AT&T, which owns and presides over Fake News @CNN, is leaving, or was forced out," Trump tweeted. "Anyone who lets a garbage “network” do and say the things that CNN does, should leave ASAP. Hopefully replacement will be much better!"

The company announced Friday that Stephenson will officially hand the reins to longtime company executive John Stankey on July 1 as part of a long-planned transition. Stankey, currently AT&T’s president and chief operating officer, has been with the company since 1985 and previously served as CEO of its WarnerMedia division and AT&T Entertainment Group.

The Trump administration previously sued to block AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner, CNN’s owner, a case that put Stephenson on the stand in court to defend the purchase two years ago. A judge ultimately ruled in the company's favor but Trump has hounded AT&T on social media ever since.

Last summer, Trump urged consumers to unsubscribe from AT&T, a Texas-based American company, as a way to force "big changes" at CNN. Trump has repeatedly bashed the network for perceived bias against him.

Stephenson, who has led AT&T for the last 13 years, has been a giant in the U.S. telecommunications world, pushing for deregulatory policies and opposing the former Obama-era net neutrality rules. In recent years, he also made a prominent push for federal data privacy rules, in part to ward off California’s looming state privacy regulation.

Under Stephenson’s tenure, AT&T also pursued various acquisition targets, including successful purchases of satellite player DirecTV and entertainment titan Time Warner. The wireless giant also unsuccessfully sought to buy T-Mobile during the Obama years.

Stephenson will remain executive chairman of AT&T’s board of directors through next January to help smooth the hand-over. The AT&T board will choose an independent director later this year to lead the board following Stephenson’s departure.

Stephenson's departure may present an opportunity for AT&T to reset its relationship with the Trump administration. The company recently tapped GOP veteran Ed Gillespie to lead its Washington policy shop.

Less than a month ago, Trump thanked Stephenson along with other internet service provider executives for ensuring U.S. internet connectivity remained strong during the coronavirus pandemic. But Stephenson was not among the dozens of company leaders Trump named to an advisory group for reopening the U.S. economy.